Andre and Shannon

How We Met

Andre and I have known each other forever now. In fact, I have pretty much known him my entire life. It’s one of those “he’s my brother’s best friend” kinda stories! My brother and Andre have been best friends for as long as I can remember and because of the age gap I guess I just always looked up to him as an older brother… until I got old enough to realize how much I actually liked him. I knew he always had my back and I could call him if I ever needed help with anything… advice, car trouble, physics homework, a ride to the bar… you name it. When I didn’t have my license, he was the only person my parents trusted to take me out to parties etc. We always had a great relationship and it wasn’t until that one summer when I was single and old enough that I started questioning if he was just being really friendly or if he was actually flirting with me?? To make a long story short, we ended up spending a lot of time together, naturally since we had so much in common, and one thing led to another… As you can probably guess, telling my brother was like dodging a bullet. Let’s just say he is the “over protective” type. Well, one night out in the bar, when everyone was in a great mood, my brother approached the two of us and said “I know about you guys”. Well we damn near dropped dead at that point. Then he went on to say that if it was one person he would like to see his sister settle down with it would be Andre. He gave us his full approval and since then it has been nothing but good times. I guess the man of my dreams was under my nose the entire time! :)

how they asked

It was the most incredible day in Bora Bora! We started the day off swimming with sharks and sting rays. Then we swam with Eagle rays and had a fabulous Tahitian lunch on a private island. We then checked off one of my items on my bucket list- swimming with Manta Rays! The day was already like a dream come true! After exploring with the Manta Rays, we ended the day at a place called “Coral Gardens”. There was a giant eel that I wanted to go look at, but Andre isn’t fond of eels so it was his opportunity to separate himself from me! So I went off to look at this enormous eel. Meanwhile, Andre was on a mission to find the perfect clam shell to put the Tahitian black pearl ring in – he was having a very hard time finding one. I then decided to ditch the eel and go see what Andre was up to.

He saw me coming, and happened to find a clam shell at the very last minute so he quickly stashed the ring inside. He wasn’t expecting me to be right behind him so he was super startled and almost dropped the ring! Anyway, he managed to get the ring inside just in time for me to show up. While we were both under the water he pretended he had found a shell with something cool in it. So l, while under water, he opened it up and I saw the ring!

I almost choked because (naturally) I wanted to gasp for air but we were under the water! We made it to the surface and I was absolutely shocked and overwhelmed. I was beyond happy. Being water babies and spending most of our time in the ocean, It couldn’t have been more of an appropriate proposal! The day was the absolutely perfect day even before the proposal. The proposal made it even more of a day to remember forever!!!